Persistent Organic Pollutants and Obesity-Related Metabolic Dysfunction: Focusing on Type 2 Diabetes

Even though obesity is a well-established risk factor of type 2 diabetes, there is emerging evidence that persistent organic pollutants (POPs), a variety of lipophilic chemicals accumulated in adipose tissue, may be critically involved in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Among various POPs, serum concentrations of organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were the most strongly and consistently linked to type 2 diabetes in both cross-sectional and prospective studies. In particular, obesity did not seem to be related to type 2 diabetes among persons with very low serum concentrations of POPs, suggesting a more fundamental role of chlorinated POPs in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. These POPs were also associated with obesity, insulin resistance, and adverse lipid profiles like high triglyceride and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol among persons without diabetes, all metabolic dysfunctions commonly observed before developing type 2 diabetes. Recent animal studies supported the findings from epidemiological studies. If all these findings on POPs are true, it suggests that any effort to reduce the external and internal exposure to POPs would be necessary to decrease the social burden of type 2 diabetes

Estimating poisoning substance amounts: Comparative study of the accuracy of health care professionals and non-practitioners

Objective. Intentional or unintentional substance intoxications are common in patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED). When we treat intoxicated patients, it is important to know the amount of drug ingestion. We invested the actual amount of semi-quantitative term expressed by patients, and investigated the accuracy of amount estimates by the public and healthcare professionals. Participants and interventions. 200 volunteers (86 health care providers and 114 non-practitioners) participated. Participants grabbed the 3 types of tablets (5mm, 10mm, and 15mm) in handfuls and fistfuls and estimated the tablet amounts. Actual amounts were measured. 100 volunteers (58 health care providers and 41 non-practitioners) participated in the investigation of accuracy of liquid amount estimation. Participant ingested water in 2.6 cm diameter bottle in response to request to take 1 sip, 1 mouthful, and 3 sips. Results. The estimated tablet counts became more accurate in terms of both fistfuls and handfuls as the size increased within the same shape classification. Participants tended to underestimate the counts of oval-shaped tablets to a greater extent than round tablets of the same size. The estimated liquids both groups of participants tended to underestimate the amounts but both groups overestimated the volumes when drinking 3 continuous sips. In tablets and liquids, there were no statistically significant differences in accuracy between the groups. Conclusions. When approaching intoxicated patients who have visited emergency department (ED), treatment should be implemented based on the assumption that the actual ingested amounts are higher than the amounts estimated by patients

The Historical Development of Early Korean Immigration To Hawaii And Its Legal Structure

The Joseon dynasty opened its doors to the United States of America in 1882 and gradually to other western countries giving up its isolation policy. One of the dramatic results of this policy change was that Emperor Gojong granted permission to allow Korean emigration to Hawaii in 1902. The first group of 102 Korean immigrants, including 21 wives and 26 children under the age of 18, arrived at Honolulu Harbor on January 13, 1903. Approximately 7,400 Korean laborers immigrated to Hawaii in the next two and one half years until immigration ended in August 1905. The purpose of this paper is to review the legal structures that supported Korean immigration to Hawaii from 1903 to 1910, when the Daehan Empire lost its sovereign power. This article first reviews the socio-economic and legal conditions leading to importation of Chinese and Japanese laborers to the Kingdom of Hawaii prior to the arrival of Koreans. Then, Korea's diplomatic and legal arrangements for the immigration of Korean laborers are examined. American legal policies and structuresfor Korean immigrants are also reviewed

Service-Driven Growth Pattern In IT Industries And Contributing Factors:A New Pattern In The Korean Industrial Development Perspective

This paper examines the pattern behind rapidly growing Korea’s IT industries. Korea has characterized economic growth based on export demand rather than domestic demand at the traditional industries such as automobile, electronics, steel, and shipbuilding etc. However, the recent development of IT industry is indicating a different aspect from traditional sectors. The rapid growth in service demand is becoming a key factor in the rapid growth and high competitiveness of IT industry. A statistical estimation testing relationship between mobile telecommunication, Internet service, and wireless equipment, computer, strongly supports service-driven growth pattern of IT industry. Strong network externalities in demand side, government’s demand promotion policies, residential environment, and users’ preferences, are main contributing factors to this new growth pattern

Persistent Organic Pollutants and Type 2 Diabetes: A Critical Review of Review Articles

Low dose persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have emerged as a new risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D). Despite substantial evidence from human and experimental studies, there are several critical issues which have not been properly addressed by POPs researchers. First, as POPs exist as mixtures, findings about POPs from human studies should be interpreted from the viewpoint of lipophilic chemical mixtures which include both measured and unmeasured POPs. Second, as POPs can directly reduce insulin secretion of beta cells, the role of POPs may be more prominent in the development of beta-cell dysfunction-dominant T2D rather than insulin resistance-dominant T2D. Third, there are multidimensional interrelationships between POPs and adipose tissue. Even though POPs are now considered as a new risk factor for T2D, independent of obesity, POPs and obesity are mechanistically linked to each other. POPs are involved in key mechanisms linking obesity and T2D, such as chronic inflammation of adipose tissue and lipotoxicity with ectopic fat accumulation. Also, POPs can explain puzzling human findings which suggest benefits of obesity because healthy adipose tissue can be protective by reducing the amount of POPs reaching other organs. Fourth, non-linear dose-response relationships between POPs and T2D are biologically possible. Although POPs are well-known endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), mitochondrial dysfunction may be a more plausible mechanism due to unpredictability of EDC mixtures. As adipose tissue plays a role as an internal exposure source of POPs, how to manage POPs inside us may be essential to protect against harms of POPs

Characteristics of Adolescent Patients Admitted to the Emergency Department due to Attempted Suicide by Poisoning; a Brief Report

Introduction: In the background of the increased suicide rate in the second decade of life, analysis of the characteristics of poisoning-related attempted suicide in adolescents and evaluation of the differences from adults may form an important basis for establishing measures to prevent deaths from poisoning. Objective: We aimed to investigate the types of toxic substances ingested for attempted suicide by poisoning in adolescents admitted to the emergency department (ED). Method: This cross-sectional study retrospectively analyzed and investigated the medical records of patients aged 13 or older, admitted to the ED of a tertiary medical institute over a period of 3 years, for attempted suicide by poisoning. Results: The psychiatric diagnoses among patients in the adolescent group included depression (75.8%), bipolar disorder (12.5%), and panic disorder (12.5%). In terms of the type of drug used for poisoning, antidepressants or anti-psychotics and sleeping pills were the most commonly used in the adolescent (43 subjects, 45.2%) and adult (286 subjects, 37.6%) groups, respectively. Conclusion: As there is a higher chance of poisoning by easily accessible drugs, the emergency physician needs to investigate any preceding diagnoses of psychiatric or medical illnesses in the adolescent patients attempting suicide with unknown drugs

The Interplay between Real Money Trade and Narrative Structure in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games

A narrative structure is one of the main components to constitute the genre of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). Meanwhile Real Money Trade (RMT) enables a player to adjust an ex post level of challenge by skipping the narrative structure of a game. However, RMT may concurrently disturb a player who enjoys game following the narrative structure hierarchically. In pursuance of developing the knowledge about the relationship between RMT and the usage of MMORPG, we investigate the role of the strictness of predetermined narrative structure. We present the dual structure of societies to describe a player that arbitrarily decides to reside in a virtual society. Then we adopt the social nominalism to explain how individual motif of playing a game is expanded to the nature of game. Finally, we argue that a game with weakly predetermined narrative structure is more positively associated with RMT volume, since these games arouse a player’s sentiment of fun by relying more on their socially oriented motivation. With empirical evidence from the Korean MMORPGs market, we proved the hypothesis